The present invention relates to a method of making nanomaterials, and, in particular, to a method of transforming three-dimensional nanoparticle assemblies into one- and two-dimensional sintered nanostructural arrays using pressure.
Due to the size- and shape-dependent properties, nanoparticles have been successfully used as functional building blocks to fabricate multi-dimensional (D) ordered assemblies for the development of ‘artificial solids’ (e.g., metamaterials) with potential applications in nanoelectronic and optic devices. To date, fabrications of ordered nanoparticle assemblies have relied on specific interparticle chemical or physical interactions such as van der Weals interactions, dipole-dipole interaction, chemical reactions, and DNA-templating. The consequent self-assembly scenario is the formation of higher dimensional nanoparticle architectures from single nanoparticles.